


Soho Spring's Eternal

by amberlo133



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 04:32:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1765618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amberlo133/pseuds/amberlo133
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dinner date that was never a date, until maybe it was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soho Spring's Eternal

**Author's Note:**

> So this is half love letter to Soho and half love letter to Kryptaria, Bootsnblossoms and Stephrec79's version of Alec and James. They are all amazing writers and if you haven't read their stuff yet why on earth are you reading this?

James groaned and tried to rest the urge to swing around and smack his best friend. "Do you mind?" he asked instead, gripping the wide, marble sink harder. 

"Not at all, they're not my ribs." Alec said, sounding depressingly cheerful. James glared at their combined reflection in the mirror.

"This time. This time they're not your ribs. Anything you do...ow, fuck, I will get my own back." He grinned to himself, Alec nearly always seemed to get burnt on missions and it was easy to make the application of burn salve extremely unpleasant. 

"Yeah, and if we were the type to think about the long term consequences we'd never do what we do."

"True." He looked over his shoulder at Alec's bent head, relaxing now that the worst was over. The mission had gone fairly well; infiltrating and then destroying a substantial black market weapons cache. The only injury he sustained was from a slight miscalculation about the size of the final blast, leaving two cracked ribs and a whole array of minor grazes. 

He had opted to make his way back into the country discreetly and after realising Alec was still in town, had glady taken the opportunity to avoid pissing about in Medical. He'd not even bothered to make his after action report, a fact that would definitely come back to haunt him if certain paper pushers happened to get wind of it. 

The various small cuts and grazes from the blast had already been cleaned before Alec had started in on his ribs. He suspected the antiseptic had been chosen specifically for how much it stung. The devious bastard finished securing the wrapping on James' ribs and clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. 

"Sorted. Let's go out." James smiled back wearily at his enthusiasm but didn't move and Alec shifted his hand to grip the back of his neck for a gentle shake. They made a striking pair in the large bathroom mirror; both attractive, blonde and highly muscled but also weathered and scarred. Alec had taken off his shirt to keep it away it from blood and chemicals and James could see the scar tissue wrapping around one shoulder from a particularly bad fire. Bloody idiot never could resisit staying to watch things burn.

If the Navy had not picked him up when they did, he might have flowered into quite the little arsonist. As it was, he was still a bloody minded pyromanic, but apparently if you did it in the name of Queen and Country, that was just fine. James knew he wasn't one to talk. He didn't have quite the same obsession with explosions, of course, but wouldn't MI6 be dull if they were all the same.

"Stop brooding." Alec interrupted. "Food, scotch, sex, next mission. Life is good, может мы жить вечно." 

"Fine. Where are we going?" He turned around. "Make it somewhere slightly classier than your usual." Alec grinned shamelessly and pulled his shirt back on.

"Soho, it is."

It was, in fact, not such a bad choice. Bond generally preferred somewhere more upmarket, but places like the Savoy or Simpson's made Alec twitchy and unpredictable. Tonight, James just didn't have the energy for damage control. Despite the leftover adrenaline, exhaustion was starting to creep in. He certainly could not compare to his almost too well-rested friend. Thankfully, MI6 was well aware of how long agents could be left unoccupied before they became a problem. Alec would no doubt soon be shipped off before he destroyed something too valuable, like St Paul's. 

While many of their most successful missions had been worked in tandem, the two of were usually deployed on quite different operations. It was Bond that always ended up in Monaco, Monte Carlo and Dubai with the psychotic billionaires. Alec usually infiltrated criminal organisations from the ground up, working in Serbia, Syria and anywhere unstable enough to breed the kind of jackals that fed off other people's misfortune. 

Alec threw and arm around James' shoulders jerking him roughly out of his thoughts as they passed between a famous bookshop and a window of leather clad mannequins. Apparently, there was a new fusion restaurant on Wardour Street that needed to be tried and would burn away the taste of repetitive field rations Bond had been forced to eat while on reconnaisance. James happily bowed to Alec's preference, which roughly translated to bitching all the way there, but in a half-assed way that only made Alec grin happily.

Soho at night was alive with people; sprawling out of bars, clubs restaurants and sex shops. Small groups wandered aimlessly throught the unofficially pedestrain streets; yelling to friends, smoking and laughing. James knew Alec was amused by the traditionally uptight British people who apparently saw no problem with the best up-and-coming restaurants sharing streets with displays of latex boxer shorts. At this time there were few serious tourists around but they still heard a bevy of different languages. Central London was home to a huge population of international students and those graduates who never managed leave. Like most large cities it was a vortex and at this time, in this area, Soho was the centre. 

The area was densely packed with decent restaurants and appealed strongly enough to Alec's manic tastes that they were both perfectly familiar with the layout. Back when they were young and on shore leave it was always easiest to navigate by the clubs and their neon signs. Nowadays about half catered to the gay scene and the happy marriage of neon lights with rainbows made them even better reference points. As they wandered past a particularly high concentration of flourescent pink , they turned right and soon found the restaurant. Unfortunately, once inside they were immediately pulled up shorted by the sheer amount of glaring pink.

"What, the fuck?"

"This was your choice, I'm blaming this all on you." James said wincing and resisting the impulse to actually shield his eyes. There were balloons and flowers and hearts; slowly the reason dawned on him.

"Mea culpa but still, what the fuck."

"Happy Valentine's Day! Table for two?" James could see the realisation on Alec's face; shock first and then a grin started and James grabbed his shoulder before this all began to go down hill. Faster than it already was. The smug bastard would find this way too amusing.

"Alec, no. Absolutely not."

"But James, darling."

"No." Alec rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Lets go get a curry."

One of their regular curry houses was clearly getting much less into the spirit of the occasion, which suited James' mood perfectly. They ordered a massive amount of food and shared all of it. The quality was excellent and they ate in silence for a while. Soon the dishes were cleared away, much of the food going into carry out boxes, which was, Alec pointed out, another advantage of not visiting James' higher class of restaurant. 

"Much as I enjoy seeing their faces in the Savoy when I ask for a doggy bag, they generally assume I'm joking. And I have to put up with you kicking me in the shins. As if we're twelve."

"When you mature past pre-teen, you can let me know." James tipped his Singha in Alec's direction and smiled. He was pleasantly full and about as relaxed as he ever got out in the open. It was one of the benefits of spending time with his oldest friend. He could rely on Alec to take equal responsibility for security, without ever having to think of him as a potential threat. There was no one else in the world of which he could say the same.

"So I think I'm off to Albania next, some smuggling syndicate rubbish that may be developing government ties. No idea which government though."

"Always lovely to get such detailed and specific intel."

"Oh yeah, although to be fair to them I haven't been officially briefed yet. This is just straight off the rumour mill."

"Probably better quality. You know how much they hate writing things down these days. Give it to the wrong muppet and they'll leave it on the tube."

"Oh, that was a good day. I thought M might actually let us shoot the bastard, its a pleasure to watch her give someone a right bollocking and it not be me." He pasued, grinning. "Almost as good as when you shot up that embassy."

"Are you ever going to let that go? I told I never intended it as a challenge. Pissing about about in that demilitarised zone was on your head."

"Come on, James. There was no way you could have been less subtle about that, it was a either a challenge or a complete fuck up. And I have faith in you.".

"What about youthful enthusiasm?"

"We weren't that young."

"Trying to recapture the Navy glory days?"

"They weren't that glorious and you're making us sound ancient." James grinned and then grimaced and shifted in his seat. He certainly felt ancient tonight.

"Remind me why we're friends again?"

Alec was silent for a moment watching him with an experienced and not unsympathetic eye. "Come on old man, lets go to the club." 

"Oh, yes. That's why." The club was actually a members only whiskey bar nearby and exactly what James needed right now. Usually he would sink into one of the huge armchairs and read but that was never an option with Alec around. Instead, after hitting the bar they made their way out onto the balcony. Here James could settle his bruised ribs comfortably while Alec remained upright, leaning against the railings and surveying the street below.

James looked at him with amusement, Alec wore a dark shirt and what looked like designer jeans. It was perfect for this kind of night and doubtless only worn for James' sake. Even with the vague stab at propriety he had still rolled the sleeves up to his elbows and on closer inspection the jeans were speckled with tiny chemical and electrical burns. 

"So tell me what I missed." Alec grinned and began updating James on the relevant gossip from MI6, MI5 and any other interesting tidbits he had picked up. This tendency towards information gathering was another reason why agent's downtime was carefully monitored. Give someone like him or Alec long enough in London and MI5 would be forced to either take out a hit or start paying them a wage.

They whiled away the next couple of hours away quietly both feeling gradually more comfortable in their skin. Finally settling up, they strolled back out onto the street. It was quieter now, the sun had finally gone down and most people had retreated inside. The raucous 'thank god its Friday' crowds had mostly slipped away leaving only the real late night groups. With them had gone the jittery stressed leaving a calmer more seductive intensity. It was the time of night when one half whispered 'stay, anything could happen' and the other warned 'leave now or be here until sunrise'.

James watched Alec weaving sleekly through the crowds just ahead of him. They weren't much prone to the lure of the night-life, to used to be the ones who lured. He had let his mind wander watching the people when he heard Alec swear quietly and grab his arm. He immediately went tense and alert, scanning the street as he was tugged towards an alley. 

"What's wrong?" He twisted further around and Alec smacked him.

"Don't turn around. That geek from MI6 is incoming."James relaxed and stopped. 

"What geek? Alec, why are we taking cover from some lab geek?"

"Not a lab geek you wanker." Alec tugged harder. "That annoyingly senior admin bastard that will flay the next one of us to violate protocol." He pulled James over to the wall manouevring him so that he could see over his shoulder. 

"What, Michaelson? Oh, fuck."

"Well look on the bright side, we're in the one bit of town where two guys 'taking cover' will actually draw less attention." Wonderful, Alec's inconvenient sense of humour was back. He leaned into Alec, bracing one arm against the wall and dropping his face into the curve of his shoulder. While he had opted for his usual suit and coat, Alec had pulled a ratty jumper on over his shirt and still managed to make it look like a fashion statement. Post-apocalyptic chic, maybe. This close he could smell aftershave, gunpowder and a faint edge of burnt wiring. It made him smile, some things never changed. 

"You're not nearly as funny as you think you are." He breathed against his neck and was surprised to feel Alec shiver.

"You keep saying that, like it makes a difference." James chuckled and their faces brushed, stubble catching as he felt Alec's hands come up inside is coat to rest on his waist, preserving the fiction of two guys making out in seedy Soho alley. It dawned on him despite the fact he and Alec were forever in and out of each others space, maybe this was little too close, too comfortable.

"How's Michaelson?" Alec's head jerked up.

"Oh, shit. Right on top of us. What the fuck is he even doing out here?" He pulled his head back a bit to look at James. There was some urgency in his eyes but mostly amusement. It was nice to mess about when the only threat was paperwork not bullets. He wiggled his eye brows comically and tightened his fingers in James's sides, not enough to pull him in but certainly an invitation. A invitation to a terrible idea. James grinned and rolled his eyes. 

"Really?"

"Why not?" James could have listed a whole lot of reasons, starting and ending with how much they both liked women but honestly he was just surprised it had never come to this before. 

With a short exhale that was half sigh, half laugh he closed tiny gap between them and pressed his lips to Alec's. His usual partners smelled like expensive perfume and silk; exotic and foreign but Alec was just like coming home. He felt a grin against his lips and then strong hands yanked him closer, knees slotting together. He angled his head and opened his mouth, swiping his tongue across rough lips. Alec tasted distantly of curry and beer, just the same as him. 

He laughed and pulled back a little to look into his friend's eyes; they were full of mischief and a deeper happiness. Drawing his hand up to rub against rough stubble and leaning forward he pressed their foreheads together in a gesture of intimacy he would never normally have allowed. There was an answering affectionate pressure for just a few moment before Alec resumed the kiss, biting at James' lip and making him groan. He felt Alec's hands run down his sides and drop unashamedly to his ass pulling him in close.

Realising just how far he would like this to go he pulled back and Alec groaned in disappointment. His eyes were heavy lidded pupils blown wide at odds with the lazy smile. There was desire there, desire in spades, but no urgency to drive this to a conclusion. 

"Suddenly, the night is looking up. Why did we never do this before?" Alec huffed a laugh and closed his eyes for a second, letting his head fall back against the brick.

"I have no fucking idea." He tightened his fingers and blunt nails dug into James ass as Alec gave a tiny roll of hips. "But I can't wait to find out what else we've been missing."

It didn't change anything, both of them were too violent, too volatile for a relationship. It only felt like another piece had slotted into place. Better but not different. 

Partners was such a versatile word.

**Author's Note:**

> Alec's comment translates very roughly to 'may we live forever' but don't quote me on that :)


End file.
